Ibiza | Environmental activists vandalize Lionel Messi’s house

(Madrid) Activists from the “Futuro Vegetal” collective sprayed black and red paint on the facade of a luxury villa owned by football star Lionel Messi in Ibiza, an action presented Tuesday as a criticism of “the responsibility of the rich” in the climate crisis.

In a video released to the public, two activists are filmed vandalising the white façade of this house located near the cove of Cala Tarida, on the west coast of Ibiza, and holding a banner reading “Help the planet, eat the rich, abolish the police”.

In a statement, the group, whose activists stuck their hands on a Goya painting in Madrid’s Prado museum in November 2022, said it wanted to draw attention to “the responsibility of the rich in the climate crisis” by targeting Messi’s “illegal” villa.

Futuro Vegetal cites in particular a 2023 Oxfam report assuring that the richest 1% of the planet emit as much greenhouse gases as the poorest two-thirds of the population.

Lionel Messi, who currently plays in Miami, United States, bought this villa which includes a spa with a sauna and a cinema room for around 11 million euros in 2022, according to the Spanish press.

But he has still not been able to obtain a certificate of habitability, a document issued by local authorities that ensures that the residence can be occupied, because several rooms had been built on the property without a permit, according to Spanish media.

Futuro Vegetal, linked to other groups in other countries with similar modes of action, has already staged dozens of shock actions in Spain.

In addition to the action carried out at the Prado in 2022, they splashed fake oil on the glass cage of a replica mummy at the Egyptian Museum in Barcelona, ​​briefly interrupted a Davis Cup tennis match in Malaga, and sprayed paint in Ibiza on a yacht reputed to belong to the heiress of the American retail giant Walmart.

Last May, two Futuro Vegetal activists were sentenced in Pau (south of France) to six months in prison, suspended, for having damaged a gas station in September 2023, in France, around thirty kilometers from the Spanish border.

In January, Spanish authorities announced the arrest of 22 members of the group, including the two who had stuck their hands on the Goya painting at the Prado Museum, and the three leaders of the collective.